As the pack of office conversions accelerates, local neighborhoods are seeing the benefits – bringing in new residents and restoring street life, shopping and entertainment venues. Earlier this week, RXR Chairman and CEO, Scott Rechler, discussed the 5 Times Square office-to-residential conversion with the Wall Street Journal. The project will transform the 1.1-million-square-foot office building into as many as 1,250 apartments, including 313 affordable units. Rechler shared that new regulations have allowed for more residential construction than was possible on the site in previous years. In New York City, analysts are forecasting about 40 million square feet of offices to be converted into residential and other uses over the next five to 10 years. That is double the forecast two years ago, before tax benefits and other government incentives were enacted.
